What are the first tasks any SEO company should target?

With PPC prices on the rise, it should come as no surprise to hear that companies are still continuing to invest in their SEO strategy. Sure, there’s no doubt that the online real estate offered by the organic positions has declined over the years – but the fact that this is in essence free traffic means that it’s still a no-brainer for the vast majority of businesses.

However, if you do decide to take on an SEO company, what are the areas that they should be looking to conquer first? Through the course of today’s post we will take a look at some of these, to show where the raw potential for most young websites exists.

Are you targeting the right keywords?

The first task that a typical SEO agency will perform is seeing whether or not you are targeting the right keywords. In fact, in a lot of cases, young companies aren’t even targeting any keywords at all.

This is one of the easiest wins for a company, particularly if you are operating in a local market, or one that doesn’t have much competition. Google provides keyword data, meaning that it’s very easy to find out just how many people are searching for a phrase and ultimately, how many people are going to be landing on your website.

From this point on, it’s all about optimizing for these keywords. This can involve tinkering with the H1 tag, title tag, on-page copy and internal links to try and force the targeted keywords into the website.

How many pages are targeting the keywords?

Following on from the above, you need to make sure that the correct pages are targeting these keywords. The general assumption at this point might be that the more pages targeting a particular keyword, the better. Unfortunately, while this might have been a tactic that worked a few years ago, it doesn’t anymore.

Instead, you need to be having just one page targeted to a particular keyword. Sure, that same page can target several keywords at a time – but there should be no keyword cannibalisation. If there is, the pages will effectively be competing with each other for Google’s rankings, and you won’t rank anywhere near as high as you really deserve.

Is your Google My Business listing up to date?

Whether you are a local or national business, having an up-to-date Google My Business listing is crucial to your success. Not only will this help you secure that elusive knowledge graph listing on the right of the search results, but it can also heighten the chances of you appearing in the map pack when somebody searches for a local service or product in your area.

You need to make sure that your name, address and phone number are all correct, and all correspond to the details that are listed on your website. If this is inconsistent, the chances of you securing any local organic listings suddenly drop.